Two Paths
by Jazz Lolipop
Summary: No one is born innately evil. Everyone has a choice. He was so close. She almost saved him but he was too weak, too weak to save himself and too weak to save the woman who loved him.


She looked up and saw him staring at her. For a moment their eyes locked, light with dark, and then with a shy smile she turned back to her friend.

"Was he looking at you? He's so creepy!" her friend hissed.

Tom chuckled to himself, the pair began to walk away but just before they left the room he heard her say, "He doesn't seem that bad."

She was in the year below him. He was in fifth year. She was small; the smallest girl in her year, very slim with long chocolate coloured hair that curled languidly down her back and almond shaped light blue eyes, a blue so light that it was almost grey. He was tall and pale with jet black hair and dark eyes that glinted like coal. She was in Ravenclaw, he was in Slytherin. He shouldn't have even noticed her, he had more important things to do, more important people to seduce than her, he needed a loyal band and he had nearly enough followers to rule the school. But she had caught his eye and now she seemed to be everywhere. She wandered down the corridors past him as he waited outside his classes, she left the great hall as he walked in, she bumped into his side as the whole school crushed down to the quiditch pitch.

* * *

Early on Saturday he slipped into the owlery, he liked it there, it was high up and quiet and no one ever came here that early on a weekend. Tom stopped abruptly. She was there again. Standing next to the window leaning out, watching the clouds chase each other across the sky, the breeze blowing her hair across her face. Tom was sure that he hadn't made a noise but she spun around and once more their eyes locked together. His dark ones bored into her lighter ones and a slow smiled crept across her lips. "Hi." She said tucking her hair behind her ear.

"Hello." Tom said his voice slightly hoarse. He told himself that it was early. That was why his voice was not his usual oil smooth tone.

She smiled again. "Tom, right? Tom Riddle?"

"Yes." He said and then he waited but she didn't say anything she just smiled at him. "And you are?"

"Cassandra Blake." She said still smiling gently. They stood there for a few more moments then she shook her head slightly, "Well, I had better be going. Um… goodbye, Tom Riddle." And she slipped past him and down the spiral staircase.

"Bye." He said to no one.

* * *

"So what about it? Come on! Just one butterbeer! That's all I'm asking!" Jenny looked at Cassandra and then back at the cute sixth year asking her out.

Cassandra laughed, "Go!" she said pushing her friend slightly, "I've got to get back anyway if I buy one more thing I'll have to get a dragon to take it all back to the castle. Besides you're freezing! You could do with a bit of warmth." The boy grinned gratefully at her and guided Jenny towards the Three Broomsticks.

Cassandra rounded a corner and was sent sprawling onto the snow; her packages flew out of her arms and all over the floor. A hulking great seventh year Slytherin stood above her. "What have we here?" he smirked.

Cassandra stood up and was pushed back down into the snow. Fury thrummed through her veins as she pulled out her wand. A cool voice cut through the air, "Leave her alone, Zabbini."

The group shuffled uncomfortably like little kids who had just been caught. "It was just a bit of a laugh." One of them murmured.

Tom Riddle's eyebrow rose. "A laugh?" he pulled out his wand so quickly that they didn't even have time to react before all of them were being thrown across the street. Tom tucked his wand back inside his jacket and continued to speak in that cool, almost conversational tone, "I don't think that this will happen again. Run along."

Cassandra watched in astonishment as the large gang of seventh years did as the one, slight fifth year boy ordered them to. Tom picked up her parcels and handed them back to her in a neat pile. "Thanks." Cassandra said still looking amazed.

"Don't mention it." Tom said, and they stood there in the muffled silence.

"I can't believe they did as you told them." Cassandra said staring at the snow to the left of Tom's foot.

"They're afraid of me." Tom said matter of factly. "Lots of people are. They think I'm…"

"Different." Cassandra finished.

"Yes." Tom said. Then he tapped her pile of parcels and they all shrank small enough to fit into her bag. "You won't drop them now."

"Thanks." Cassandra said and she tucked them all into her patchwork satchel.

"Are you not afraid of me?" Tom asked her curiously.

"No." Cassandra said tossing her head and looking him directly in the eye. Such defiance would normally have caused Tom to curse her but instead her clear eyes made him feel a strange sense of peace. "Actually, I wanted to show you something."

She held out a gloved hand. Tom hesitated. "Trust me." Cassandra said.

"I don't even know you." He said.

"But you trust me, I know you do." Tom slipped his long fingers into her warm grasp. Cassandra led him out of the main village to a snow covered shack. "Isn't it cool? No one knows anything about it. It's like it just fell off the map."

Tom surveyed the crumbling ruin. "It looks like it would be haunted."

"Maybe it is!"

"If you could live forever why would you spend all your time here though?"

Cassandra looked back at the shack, "Ghosts don't live forever. They just exist, like shadows." She glanced back at Tom who was looking pensive. "But it's a nice place to think, no one ever come here."

"If you like this place being yours alone, why did you show it to me?" Tom asked her.

"I don't know. I just thought you'd like it."

Tom smiled; a proper smile that reached his eyes. He was a very striking looking boy, but when he smiled he was unbelievably handsome. Cassandra's heart did a little jump. "I do like it."

* * *

Cassandra sat cross legged on the floor of the library leaning against the bookshelves when a familiar voice made her look up, "You know we have got to stop meeting like this."

Cassandra smiled up at Tom. "Let me guess you want…" she reached a hand behind her back and pulled out the first book her fingers touched, "_Murdock Root and its influence on Wizard Society in the late 1600s_"

"Yes exactly, it just so happens to be a favourite bedtime read of mine." Inside his head Tom's thoughts were racing. Around this girl he was someone different, someone he didn't think he even knew. He knew he should stop seeing her, it would stop the confusing thoughts, the hours he lay awake wondering why he didn't mind that she wasn't afraid of him. But he enjoyed her company and he didn't want to stop looking into those cool, clear eyes. "Why are you sitting on the floor?" he asked her.

"It's comfortable." She said aforementioned eyes now back on the pages of the book she had resting on her lap.

Tom settled himself down opposite her and leant against the bookshelf. It was comfortable and the heat radiating from the leg she had stretched next to his was sending shivers up his spine. They stayed there her reading and him flicking sightlessly through a book watching her. Occasionally she would glance up at him and catch his eye and smile and he would look quickly down again and then resume watching her. They chatted quietly to each other talking about teachers and subjects and nothing in particular. The librarian moved through the rows chivvying students off. "Miss Blake, Mr Riddle. Off you go."

They wandered out and she locked the door behind them. "Well, I'm this way." Cassandra said and she gestured in the opposite direction of the dungeons. Tom nodded and moved to go, when she touched his wrist and he turned. Cassandra stretched up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips briefly to his. With her cheeks flushed scarlet she hurried away pausing at the corner to look back at Tom who was still standing there watching her go.

* * *

"Hey." Tom said, catching up with Cassandra on the Charms corridor.

Cassandra beamed up at him, brushed her lips against his and was about to reply when hissed whispers behind her made her break off. "That's her! She was babbling in the middle of transfiguration!"

"Emma heard her say something about the Minister of Magic… the next week he was dead."

"Professor Dippit should do something about her."

Cassandra bit her lip her cheeks blushing bright red as the malicious Hufflepuffs pushed past her. "Freak!" one of them spat.

Tom reached automatically for his wand but Cassandra stopped him. "Leave them. If you cursed everyone who thought I was a freak there wouldn't be anyone left in the castle."

"Why…" Tom began.

"People are afraid of people who are different. You know that. Things they don't understand."

"But you're not…" he began again.

"Yes I am!" Cassandra turned on him eyes blazing. "I see things. Things that haven't happened yet. Things that more often than not happen."

Tom blinked. "You're a seer." He breathed. "But why would people hate you for that? It's a gift."

"Some gifts are curses too." Cassandra said softly tears glistening in her wide eyes. Tom wrapped his hand around her wrist but she broke away and hurried down the main stairs. People stared and pointed her out to their companions hiding their mouths as their minds cooked up cruel rumours, sniggering at their own creations.

Later that night when Tom was doing his final patrol he saw a slim figure wrapped up in a cloak slip silently out of the castle and into the grounds. Tom watched them from a window on the second floor. The person turned around to glance back at the castle before hurrying away into the velvet night. But Tom had seen their face illuminated by the moonlight and he sprinted out of the castle after her.

Cassandra was sitting inside the protective branches of a weeping willow watching the moons reflection on the mirror smooth lake. She looked up as Tom swept the curtain of branches out of his way. He stood next to her silently and she gazed back at the water not saying anything.

"Cass…" he began.

"I get it if you don't want to see me anymore." She said harshly.

Tom was shocked. "What to protect my reputation?" a small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. But it was only a small one. "Ignore them. They're stupid. They'll never be anyone. You could be someone." He said gently.

Cassandra turned to him tears leaving glistening trails down her cheeks. Tom gathered her up in his arms like it was the most natural thing in the world and held her while she wept into his robes. "I can't control it. I just see things, images. Sometimes they make sense, most of the time they don't. A part of me wants it to stop but it's such a big piece of me." She sobbed.

They sat there in silence Cassandra merging her fingers with Tom's long pale ones in her lap. Then she brought his palm up to study carefully. "What?" he asked excitement in his voice. "What do you see?"

"Two paths." She said distantly all her concentration the lines of his palm, "One leading to light and one to darkness. Everlasting darkness." She looked up fear for him in her eyes.

Tom's dark eyes widened. "Which do I take?" he whispered.

She shook her head. "I don't know. You have not set yourself surely on one yet." Her sincere eyes blazed into his. "Pick the right one Tom." Then she stood and quietly darted away leaving Tom alone with his muddled thoughts.

* * *

Tom made his way down the narrow corridor, people melting into their compartments as he came near them. Cassandra was sitting in a compartment of Ravenclaw girls playing the muggle game draughts with a friend. The rest of the group were laughing at the furiously competitive looks on each players face. Tom knocked on the glass and all the girls jumped looking at him suspiciously. Cassandra smiled warmly and moved one of her pieces taking three of her opponent's in one go. "I win." She said and then slid over to Tom taking his hand. Tom saw the girls' eyes flick quickly from their faces to their joined hands and back again. "Let's go for a walk." They wandered down to the end of the train to the very last compartment which was completely empty.

Hours later as the train pulled into Kings Cross Tom tenderly brushed Cassandra's hair off her face; her head nestled in his lap. "Wake up." he said.

Cassandra pushed herself up her black robes slipping off one shoulder showing pale skin underneath. Tom reached out and touched the cluster of freckles near her neck, he wound a strand of silken hair around his finger. "I'll see you over the holidays won't I?" she said desperately.

"I'll write." He said. "You could come and see me. I'll show you around muggle London."

Cassandra waved at her parents and then turned to Tom. "Everyday." She promised. "I'll write everyday, you'll probably get bored of my ridiculous letters after a week." She threw herself into his arms and Tom held her tightly inhaling the soft, floral scent of her hair against his cheek. He leant down and kissed her, then watched as she left with her family.

With a dark look he turned to walk to the loathed orphanage.

* * *

"Tom." The orphanage's new matron knocked on the wooden door. Tom didn't look up from his book. "There's a young lady at the door for you." Tom's head shot up.

"Dark hair?" he asked.

The matron smiled her eyes twinkling, "Yes, and very blue eyes. Friend of yours?" she asked smiling again in an infuriatingly knowing way.

Tom all but ran to the front door. Cassandra was sitting outside in the sunshine she looked up as Tom approached and jumped up standing on tiptoe to kiss him hard. "I've missed you so much!" Tom laughed and hand in hand they walked out into the street.

The matron watched from a window. She didn't know what her predecessor was talking about, the boy was quiet but with that girl he seemed just like every young man in love for the first time.

Cassandra pulled Tom through Diagon Alley. "Didn't your parents mind you coming alone?" he asked.

"Nah." She said inspecting a display in a shop window. "They know I can look after myself. Besides I'm not alone! You're here! C'mon books first!"

Later they lounged in front of the ice cream parlour with their bags almost bursting with books, quills and potion materials. Cassandra had bought herself new school robes and a lovely set in lilac whilst Tom had sat patiently in the corner. They both shared a love for books and when Tom had shown Cassandra his favourite second hand book store she had been in raptures. They had spent the better part of the afternoon in there flipping through dusty books looking for hidden treasures.

* * *

Tom reached up and pushed his trunk when he felt someone tap his shoulder. "Snap!" Cassandra said happily pointing at her new prefect badge.

Tom kissed her cheek, "Congratulations! I have something for you." He said handing her a book with a picture of a half bloomed rose on the front. "It's a collection of muggle fairy tales."

Cassandra flipped through the book stopping now and then to look at the beautifully illustrated pages. "Thank you!" she said hugging him and slipping the book into her embroidered bag.

* * *

Time Tom spent with Cassandra was precious, they both had so much work to do, prefect duties and Tom was being invited more and more frequently to Professor Slughorn's tea parties. Cassandra had also been invited to a few but she wasn't fond of the Professor preferring to spend time with Professor Dumbledore who had started up a sort of social club for all the houses. Cassandra had helped him set it up agreeing that the determined separation of the students was a bad idea. She merged effortlessly with all the members laughing easily but still they treated her with a slight distrust.

One day during one of his frees Tom was wandering the corridors when one of the classroom doors burst open. Professor Dumbledore strode out supporting a pale Cassandra. Tom caught a glimpse of the rest of the transfiguration class all staring with mixed expressions of fear, awe or sympathy at the shivering Cassandra. Professor Dumbledore shut the door with a flick of his wand helping Cassandra sit down on the floor. "Cassandra!" Tom hurried over to her kneeling down. Cassandra looked up at him gratefully as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Dumbledore looked down at her concern in his piercing eyes. "I trust you will look after Miss Blake, Tom." He said gently. "Cassandra, please don't worry about the rest of the class but if you would like to come to my office when you feel better I will give you any notes you need and I will explain everything to the rest of the staff if you wish to take the rest of the day off." Dumbledore glanced at Tom and then spoke again. "Please feel free to talk to me if you need to."

Tom held out his hand and pulled Cassandra up and walked out with her into the grounds. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

They both knew he was talking about the vision she had had. Cassandra looked up at him tears clinging to her lashes. "I saw pain and fear and death. I don't understand! It was so horrible!" she buried her face in his shoulder and cried.

When her tears had subsided Cassandra pulled back and whispered. "I think I love you, Tom."

* * *

Tom snuck back into the castle. A ring set with a dark stone on his pale finger.

Earlier that day Cassandra had looked at him as they sat in the library, "Are you alright? You seem… agitated." Tom had brushed off her concern although she was right. All day adrenaline had been coursing through his veins making him restless.

Tom turned towards the dungeons when a sudden noise made him freeze. Cassandra stepped out of the shadows, the torch light sending her features into sharp relief, one half of her face in shadow, making her look strangely ethereal and other worldly.

"Cassandra." He said slowly, "What are you doing here?"

He saw her eyes flicker towards his hands. "We can't be together Tom." She said tonelessly.

"What? What brought this on?"

"I loved you." She said sadly. "Please don't talk to me anymore."

She turned to go when Tom caught hold of her wrist panic and anger warring in his head. "Don't. Cassandra, please."

"Leave me alone!" she shouted her voice breaking pitifully; she wrenched herself out of his grasp and ran up the stairs.

Tom wanted to go after her, he wanted to beg her, to force her to stay but he just stood frozen.

Images rushed through his head; Cassandra pulling her wand on the gang of seventh years her cheeks pink her eyes blazing, Cassandra weeping in his arms confused and in pain, Cassandra sighing softly into his mouth as he kissed her when they were both supposed to be patrolling the corridors for people engaged in similar activities, Cassandra smiling radiantly up at him as they walked through London streets her fingers entwined with his.

"NO!" Tom yelled. He blocked her out, he blocked out her smile and her knowing eyes that flickered with mirth or smouldered with righteous indignation. Any last vestiges of hesitation were gone.

He would go ahead with his brilliant plan.

Alone.

* * *

Years later...

The house was small but completely her. White washed walls with brightly painted shutters and defiantly cheerful flowers bursting into bloom through the semi-darkness and the drizzling rain. His cloak swirled after him as he splashed down the garden path towards the bright red door. It swung open underneath his wand and he stepped silently into the hall. The miniscule hall led onto a comfortable sitting room full of soft chairs and colourful cushions. A book lay open on the low, wooden table. He bent down to pick it up. The front cover showed a half bloomed rose.

"I always knew you'd find me."

He turned around she was standing near the door in a plain white full length nightdress, a patchwork shawl draped over her bare shoulders. Her dark hair curled loose around her head, framing her heart shaped face and her clear, light eyes shining in the half darkness. She was beautiful.

"You always knew me well, Cassandra."

"I thought I knew you." She corrected him with a sigh.

"You haven't changed a bit."

"You have." She said her eyes raking his pale, pinched face. "I heard you applied for a job at Hogwarts. And now go under a new name… my lord." From her lips the title sounded like the worst insult.

"Heard?" he asked carefully, "Or saw?"

She didn't reply. They stood in silence for a few more moments. "What do you want?" she asked tiredly.

"Come with me."

"No." she said in a hushed voice. "I don't know you anymore."

"I am the same Tom Riddle you knew all those years ago, the same Tom you said you loved."

"No!" she shouted angry now, "The Tom I loved died the day you murdered your own father!"

"How did you…" he asked.

"A gift and a curse." She reminded him. "Tom died that night and I died too."

"Come with me." He said again. "Together we would be invincible. I will rule the world with you at my side."

"No." she said again. "You have chosen your path."

"I chose the path of light! I will never die! Join me! Become immortal!"

"No." she breathed shaking her head gently. "You chose the path of darkness. The path of evil."

He drew his wand. "You will join me." He commanded.

"I will _not_." She said insolently, hatred burning in her eyes.

"I will kill you if I have to!" he screamed.

"Kill me!" she said calmly unshed tears in her eyes. "You can't hurt me anymore. You've already broken my heart. Nothing you do can hurt more than that."

She watched him with her cool, clear eyes showing no trace of fear. "Stop it." He said. "Stop looking at me!" she continued to gaze at him. "Stop! Stop! I command you to stop! Crucio!" the curse threw her to the floor and she writhed there in agony her eyes screwed tight shut. He lifted the curse.

"The prophecy I made that night will be my end." She spat, her breathing ragged, "But another is coming. Years from now. And that will be your doom."

"NO!" he yelled mad now with rage, "I shall not die!"

"It is a self-fulfilling prophecy." Cassandra said sadly fixing him once more with her beautiful, terrifying gaze. "The more desperately you cling to life the further you fall towards damnation." In fury he raised his wand. "Goodbye, my love." She said her eyes still fixed on his face.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"


End file.
